Jones delighted by clean sheet in 'ugly' Imps stalemate

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss Nathan Jones praised his side’s character as they battled to a goalless draw in what he felt was an ‘ugly’ game at Lincoln City this afternoon.

Town had to withstand an aerial onslaught from the hosts throughout the 90 minutes, which they managed to do so, keeping only a second clean sheet of the season in the process.

With Lincoln unbeaten on home soil in almost a year, after winning the National League last term, Jones, who saw his side make it three games without defeat themselves, said: “It’s a good point, not many will come here and keep a clean sheet.

“A clean sheet was vital considering how they play, but it’s a real difficult place to come because there’s no flow in the game.

“There’s constant free-kicks, they could win a free-kick in their corner flag and they’d put it into your box from the corner flag, how the keeper kicks.

“There’s no chance of any real flow or anything, so basically we just had to live on scraps.

“We had to make sure we competed and we got on seconds, then tried to hit them on the counter-attack. It’s not like an open game not like a building game when you can press and so on.

“I would think you struggle to think was half an hour of open play in that game, because it’s just constant, constant free-kicks, constant stoppages, ball in your box, you have to compete.

“It’s a different brand of football and I think we stood up to it and competed.

“These will be there or thereabouts. I think the last two games we have played, away from home, against two sides that will be fancied, they play a certain way, put pressure on you and if you don’t concentrate you get punished.

“We didn’t today, I am just pleased with the point today. It wasn’t a vintage performance from us.

"It was an excellent point and I’m proud of them as we stuck at it, we competed, we grafted, got on seconds in a very, very, very ugly game."